Refinement Calculus

Θemi Refinement Calculus: A Systematic Introduction Ralph-Johan Back Joakim von Wright Draft, December 31, 1997 This is page ii Printer: Opaque this This is page iii Printer: Opaque this Preface The refinement calculus is a framework for reasoning about correctness and refinement of programs. The primary application of the calculus is the derivation of traditional imperative programs, where programs are constructed by stepwise refinement. Each refinement step is required to preserve the correctness of the previous version of the program. We study the basic rules for this kind of program derivation in detail, looking at specification statements and their implementation, how to construct recursive and iterative program statements, and how to use procedures in program derivations. The refinement calculus is an extension of Dijkstra’s weakest precondition calculus, where program statements are modeled as predicate transformers. We extend the traditional interpretation of predicate transformers as executable program statements to that of contracts that regulate the behavior of competing agents and to games that are played between two players. The traditional interpretation of predicate transformers as programs falls out of this as a special case, where one of the two players has only a very rudimentary role to play. Our extension yields a number of new potential applications for the refinement calculus theory, like reasoning about correctness of interactive program statements and analyzing two-person games and their winning strategies. Program refinement involves reasoning in many domains. We have to reason about properties of functions, predicates and sets, relations, and program statements described as predicate transformers. These different entities are in fact mathematically all very similar, and they form the refinement calculus hierarchy. In this book we examine the ways in which these different domains are related to each other and how one can move between them. Lattice theory forms a unifying conceptual basis iv that captures similarities between the domains, while higher-order logic serves as a common logic that we can use to reason about entities in these domains. We present a new foundation for the refinement calculus based on lattice theory and higher-order logic, together with a simple theory of program variables. These topics are covered in the first part of the book. Higher-order logic is described in a new way that is strongly influenced by lattice theory. This part also introduces notions needed for imperative programs, program variables, expressions, assignment statements, blocks with local variables, and procedures. The second part of the book describes the predicate transformer approach to programming logic and program semantics, as well as the notion of program refinement. Wealso study the operational semantics of contracts, games, and program statements, and show how it is related to the predicate transformer interpretation of these. The third part of the book shows how to handle recursion and iteration in the refinement calculus and also describes how to use the calculus to reason about games. It also presents case studies of program refinement. The last part of the book studies more specific issues related to program refinement, such as implementing specification statements, making refinements in context, and transforming iterative structures in a correctness-preserving way. The refinement calculus has been a topic of investigation for nearly twenty years now, and a great number of papers have been published in this area. However, a systematic introduction to the mathematical and logical basis for program refinement has been missing. The information required to study this field is scattered through many journal and conference papers, and has never been presented as a coherent whole. This book addresses this problem by giving a systematic introduction to the field. The book partly summarizes work that has been published earlier, by ourselves and by other authors, but most of the material is new and has not been published before. The emphasis in this book is on the mathematical and logical basis of program refinement. Although we do give examples and case studies of program construction, this is not primarily a hands-on book on how to construct programs in practice. For reasons of space we have been forced to omit a great deal of material that we had wanted include in the book. In particular, we decided not to include the important topics of data refinement and parallel and reactive system refinement here (though a simple approach to data refinement is described in Chapter 17). We plan to treat these topics in a comprehensive way in a separate book. The book is intended for graduate students and for advanced undergraduate students interested in the mathematics and logic needed for program derivations, as well as for programmers and researchers interested in a deeper understanding of these issues. The book provides new insight into the methods for program derivations, as well as new understanding of program semantics and of the logic for reasoning about programs. Θemv The book should be easy to use in teaching. We have tried to explain things quite carefully, and proofs are often given in reasonable detail. We have also included quite a number of examples and exercises. A previous understanding of logic and programming methodology is helpful but not necessary in order to understand the material in the book. The first, second, and third parts of the book can be given as successive courses, with suitable material added from the fourth part. Acknowledgments This book was inspired and influenced by a number of other researchers in the field. In particular, Edsger Dijkstra’s work on predicate transformers and his systematic approach to constructing programs has been an important source of inspiration, as has the work of Tony Hoare on the logic of programming. Jaco de Bakker’s work on programming language semantics has formed another strong influence, in particular the stringent way in which he has approached the topic. We very much appreciate Carroll Morgan’s work on the refinement calculus, which has provided many ideas and a friendly competitive environment that has been much appreciated. Finally, Michael Gordon’s work has shown the usefulness of higher-order logic as a framework for reasoning about both hardware and software and about formal theories in general. Our close coworkers Reino Kurki-Suonio and Kaisa Sere deserve a special thanks for many years of fruitful and inspiring collaboration in the area of programming methodology and the logic for systematic program construction. We are indebted to many other colleagues for numerous enlightening discussions on the topics treated in this book. Our thanks go to Sten Agerholm, Roland Backhouse, Eike Best, Michael Butler, Rutger Dijkstra, Wim Feijen, Nissim Francez, Marcel van de Goot, David Gries, Jim Grundy, John Harrison, Ian Hayes, Eric Hehner, Wim Hesselink, Peter Hofstee, Cliff Jones, Bengt Jonsson, He Jifeng, Joost Kok, Rustan Leino, Alain Martin, Tom Melham, David Nauman, Greg Nelson, John Tucker, Amir Pnueli, Xu Qiwen, Emil Sekerinski, Jan van de Snepscheut, Mark Staples, Reino Vainio, and Wolfgang Weck. We also want to thank our students, who have provided an inspiring environment for discussing these topics and have read and given detailed comments on many previous versions of the book: Thomas Beijar, Martin Büchi, Eric Hedman, Philipp Heuberger, Linas Laibinis, Thomas Langbacka,˚ Leonid Mikhajlov, Anna Mikhajlova, Lasse Nielsen, Rimvydas Ruksˇenas,˙ Mauno Rönkkö, and Marina Waldén. The Department of Computer Science at Abo Akademi University and Turku Centre for Computer Science (TUCS) have provided a most stimulating working environment. The sabbaticals at the California Institute of Technology, Cambridge vi University, and Utrecht University have also been very fruitful and are hereby gratefully acknowledged. The generous support of the Academy of Finland and the Ministry of Education of Finland for the research reported in this book is also much appreciated. Last but not least, we want to thank our (sometimes more, sometimes less) patient wives and children, who have been long waiting for this book to be finished: Barbro Back, Pia, Rasmus, and Ida Back, Birgitta Snickars von Wright, Heidi, Minea, Elin, and Julius von Wright. This is page vii Printer: Opaque this Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Contracts ........................... 1 1.2 Using Contracts ........................ 6 1.3 Computers as Agents ..................... 9 1.4 Algebra of Contracts ..................... 10 1.5 Programming Constructs ................... 12 1.6 Specification Constructs .................... 15 1.7 Correctness .......................... 18 1.8 Refinement of Programs .................... 20 1.9 Background .......................... 21 1.10 Overview of the Book ..................... 24 I Foundations 27 2 Posets, Lattices, and Categories 29 2.1 Partially Ordered Sets ..................... 29 2.2 Lattices ............................ 36 2.3 Product and Function Spaces ................. 40 2.4 Lattice Homomorphisms ................... 43 2.5 Categories ........................... 49 2.6 Summary and Discussion ................... 54 2.7 Exercises ........................... 54 3 Higher-Order Logic 57 3.1 Types and Terms ....................... 57 3.2 Semantics ........................... 62 3.3 Deductive Systems ...................... 63 3.4 Theories ............................ 65

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